Meet Deborah Queen – The Fitness & Health Guru

Brielle: Who is Deborah Queen?

Deborah Queen: I never know what to introduce myself as but for the purpose of this interview, I would say, I am a fitness fanatic. I love blogging. I love lifestyle, travel, and God. I am just living my best life everyday.

Brielle: How were you able to overcome self-esteem issues due to your weight and become the confident woman that you are?

Deborah Queen: In High school, I was so in love with food. I am still in love with food but I think it was a bit crazy back then. I would dream about food. I would think about food. My mom would ban me from going to McDonalds but I had a best friend who worked at McDonalds, and she would hook me up with some chicken nuggets. It was so crazy. I was at my heaviest in High school. At the age of 15/16, I weighed 206lbs.

I had not noticed that I gained that much weight. Eventually when I could not work properly and I started to feel heavy – I knew I had to do something. Diabetes runs in my family. My dad is diabetic, my uncle is diabetic, so I was always very worried about that. In 2012, we went back to Nigeria for Christmas and I hung out with my dad a lot. I saw how active he was. I got scared. I thought to myself, I do not want to die and I do not want to have diabetes. obviously you can treat diabetes now but it can get complicated and it could lead to other diseases.

I thought to myself it is time for me to get a hold of myself and my weight. It started as a health thing and then as I started to exercise, I could see a difference. I also joined the track team to help me with my weight loss journey. I won so many medals from running.

I gained all the weight I lost in college and that was when I started dealing with body insecurity. I joined the gym in my school and I also started kick boxing because I could run as well as I did previously. Since I was doing a lot of cardio, I became very skinny with no butt.

So, I asked myself how can I stay fit and still keep the curves on my body. That was when I started weight lifting. In my third year (2018/2019), I started to see more progress. I was building more muscle and I found the science of being able to eat more to gain more muscle. Now, I weigh between 175-180lbs. My waist went from 36 to 33 inch.

Brielle: Is there a correlation between being fit and your confidence level?

Deborah Queen: I believe there is a correlation. Generally, I think that no matter what stage you are in whether you do not like your body or you are not at your healthiest, you absolutely have to love yourself. I also think that when you are healthy and when you do challenge yourself, it boosts your confidence because you feel stronger. It is also a mental game because if you are trying to loose weight and get strong, you have to be mentally ready to do that. Once you are exercising your brain you would automatically feel confident.

Brielle: What will be your advice to someone who is just starting their fitness journey?

Deborah Queen: Fitness is definitely a mental game. I say this to reiterate that whether you have being exercising for a while, you would always have to mentally challenge yourself. I have been working out for a long time but it is not easy. I always have to tell myself, ‘hey, you are going to work out‘, and I push myself to do that.

For someone who is starting out, you have to be clear with your goals. You have to be realistic. You cannot say, “I am going to loose 20 lbs. in 2 weeks” in a healthy way. A healthy way of losing weight is 1-2 lbs. each week. You have to be patient and you have to be consistent. You have to look at it from lifestyle perspective. How do you talk to yourself? How do you challenge yourself? What are you around? What do you allow in your life? Those are the things you need to focus on.

Start from where you are and progress. You have to look at it from a lifestyle perspective as opposed to “I want to loose some weight”.

Brielle: How can you stay disciplined in you fitness journey?

Deborah Queen: Personally, my goal in life is to become the best version of myself. That is all I want to become. I want to be whoever God wants me to be – that best version is what I want to be. I always try and challenge myself in every area of my life and it is in little things. In becoming the best version of myself, I have to see it as a day-to-day process. I am constantly challenging the way I think and the way I speak. I am challenging the kind of people I surround myself with and the kind of content I consume.

So, for me when I wake up in the morning, I say, ‘I am going to be my best version today’. Whether I have a good or bad day I would be my best version today and that includes being able to have the discipline to set aside 30 mins to 1 hour to train my body. I think you have to be mentally ready. It is like a mental exercise and I think if you are someone that is starting out, writing makes it a lot easier and clearer. You need to write your goal and then break it down to what you need to do to achieve it. That is what motivates me.

I am a fitness coach so I hold myself accountable because I hold other ladies accountable in their fitness journey.

Brielle: What is your advice to fellow foodies?

Deborah Queen: You got to eat! Listen! You will not find me doing any kind of diet. I do not believe in diets because I feel like they do not last. It works for some people. For someone who is a foodie, I think you just have to focus on discipline. I do not think you should restrict your diet because you are going to eventually revert back. I have friends who have done keto diet and some other ones. By the fourth month, they are back where they started and sometimes they gain more weight than what they lost.

I am Nigerian and I love my rice, cakes, puff puff. I love to eat. I just love food in general. I cannot restrict myself that way. What I do is, I have everything in moderation. I have deserts every week. I do not over do it. Sometimes, I would just have a bite.

My advice to foodies is to be realistic. Bear in mind that if you want to still eat these food, you have to reduce your portion. Although you should focus on the food, it is also important to focus on the calories that you are taking in.

Brielle: What was something you wish you had know?

Deborah Queen: Having unrealistic goals. Literally saying I want to loose 20 lbs. in 5 days. Anyone who tells you you can do that is lying to you or they are trying to kill you. That is not healthy. The biggest mistake I made was having unrealistic goals. Sometimes you look at people and you want to look like them. You cannot be like them because your body is not built that way. Some people are naturally curvier than others. Some people have like a naturally smaller waist. Some people have a taller frame that maybe makes them get away with certain things. Everyone has different body types and the last thing you want to do is compare yourself. So, I am always weary when people say they want to be like me. No, take the things that I do and make it yours. Do not be like me, be like you because what will work for me would not work for you.

For example, I cannot say I want a 20 inch waist. Where? How? My body is not designed that way. I am not built to have that kind of body. I do not have a very curvy body and trying to kill myself to get there is unrealistic. One of the things I hate with the fitness industry is that a lot of people do surgery and they do not talk about it.

You are going to look at some girls and want what they have but it is surgery and you cannot get it the natural way. Do whatever you want to do but do not paint it as natural and make other people feel like they can attain that when it is not realistic. Focus on your body and your genetics. What is natural for you? Focus on that and become more comfortable with yourself.

If your goal is to loose 20 lbs., do not just think of loosing 20lbs. but also think about how can you keep it off.

Brielle: What is your advice for eating healthy?

Deborah Queen: You should have your protein, carbs, fat, and hydrate. I believe in a balance diet. Diversify your meal prep so you do get bored. Do not meal prep for a whole week. Meal prep every 2-3days. That way you are keeping your food fresh and you do not get bored of what you are eating. When you cook your own food, not only are you burning calories but you are making your food fresh. Vegetables are a lot better to eat when they are fresh in comparison to when they have been cooked and put in a fridge for a while. Try different things and stick to what you like.